


A Treacherous Admiration

by Silvestria



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015), Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Historical, Alternate Universe - Napoleonic Wars, Alternate Universe - Regency, Captain Dameron is very dashing, F/M, Finn is French because reasons, Jane Austen would approve, Lord Ren harbours an admiration for Miss Smith, Rey Smith is a nobody, Star Wars is a Romance, Starkiller Assembly Rooms, sexually charged English country dancing, spot the tropes, this is a Romance with a capital R, when is a lightsaber duel not a lightsaber duel?, when it's an English country dance, with an emphasis on AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-20
Updated: 2017-11-20
Packaged: 2019-02-04 20:08:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,264
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12778560
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silvestria/pseuds/Silvestria
Summary: Rey Smith is a nobody from nowhere. She doesn't even have a right to her surname. So what does the great Lady Leia Solo want with her? Lord Ren would very much like to never set eyes on his mother's rude and unladylike protégée ever again but the fates and his patron, the Duke of Snoke, seem to have other ideas.





	A Treacherous Admiration

 

There was nothing about the Starkiller Assembly Rooms that suggested it was due to be the backdrop for an encounter that could change the course of English history. None of the well-healed ladies and gentlemen who patronised the ball that dreary evening in this genteel Yorkshire watering hole had any expectation of it. Even Lady Leia Solo, who was always on the lookout for a trap suspected nothing beyond a little friendly reconnaissance. She was not, after all, expecting to see her estranged son at the ball. Lord Ren never attended balls. 

Everyone knew that.

If she had suspected Lord Ren would be in attendance, she certainly would not have brought Rey with her.

Nobody could miss Ren’s entrance into the assembly rooms. He cut an imposing figure in his perfectly tailored dark clothes and burnished Hessians and his waves of hair that owed a debt to Lord Byron. At his side, his constant companion, Lieutenant Colonel Hux, seemed somewhat dwarfed by his friend’s size and magnetism, despite his best efforts to impress. Very few people would pay Hux any attention when Ren entered the room. Hux often looked as if he knew it.

The conversation sputtered to a halt as all eyes turned towards the two men. Lady Leia stiffened and paled slightly but otherwise refused to react. Her companions had less self-control.

“ _ Insupportable _ !” cried Finn. His fists were clenched at his side.

Captain Dameron nudged his patroness. “My lady? Shall I remove him? He has some nerve…”

Lady Leia smiled at him with sad resignation. “Remove Snoke’s chosen heir from the ballroom? You don’t have that power, Dameron. Besides, he is my son. I will not have him interfered with.”

“But what he did to Admiral Solo-”

“You heard me, Captain,” she interrupted him with more of a bite in her voice. She turned to look at the young woman at her side, for whose sake she had come to the assembly in the first place.

Rey was silent but her gaze was fixed on Lord Ren with a singular intensity, most unbecoming in anyone trying to pass as a young lady. Lady Leia took her arm.

“I’m sorry, Rey,” she said quietly. “If I had known my son would put in an appearance, I would never have suggested this evening for your first ball.”

The young woman took a deep breath and forced her eyes away from Ren. “Don’t be alarmed, Lady Leia. He means nothing to me.” She purposefully turned her back on him and smiled up at Finn.

“Well, Monsieur Finn, are you going to ask me to dance yet? Or has Lady Leia made all this effort for us both for nothing?”

“My apologies, Mademoiselle.” He was trying not to glance across the room but Rey’s insistent smile eventually pulled him back. “Will you dance with me? The first set?”

“And the second set with me?” added Captain Dameron appearing close behind Finn.

Rey laughed. “With such partners, I will be the envy of every girl here!”

Across the room, however, the atmosphere had not lightened. 

“Explain to me again why we are here,” snapped Lord Ren. His eyes were drawn across the room.

“To make you suffer, Ren. Obviously,” replied Hux. “It’s my reason for living.”

“I had noticed.”

“But tell me you are not at least a little gratified by their reaction to us. This hell hole hasn’t been graced by such quality in many years. They don’t know how to deal with us.”

Ren shot his companion a glance that was almost amused. As if a jumped-up military man with pretensions to foppery was anything special these days. Without replying, he spun on his heel and stalked up to a rotund gentleman in an old-fashioned wig: the master of ceremonies. He executed a perfunctory bow which was returned with much greater deference.

“Good evening, Mr. Bradfield. My companion, Colonel Hux, requires your assistance in finding a partner. Don’t you, Hux? He loves to dance but has little acquaintance in this part of the country. Your assistance is most appreciated.”

As Mr. Bradfield gave his obsequious assurances that Colonel Hux would lack for no attention that evening and that there were several very pretty ladies in attendance to whom he would be happy to introduce Hux, and Hux himself turned a deepening shade of angry crimson that clashed horribly with his hair, Ren turned his back and stalked across the room to the refreshments table, the crowd scattering before him. From that position of security, thimbleful of punch in a hand that was too large for the dainty glass, he could survey the rest of the room at his leisure, including the curious little grouping round his mother. Nobody tried to speak to him, which was just the way he liked it.

The first dance was called. A glowering Hux led out a mincing blonde thing with corkscrew curls to the top of the set, the daughter of some local squire, Ren guessed. He almost felt sorry for him. But before he could settle back to enjoy Hux’s discomfort, his eye was drawn as it inevitably would be to the sight of the dark-skinned Frenchman leading his partner out. Rey Smith, his mother’s newest protégée, who had appeared from nowhere and was suddenly everywhere. She was nothing. He had made sure to find that out. So why was Lady Leia so interested in her? Why had she brought her to this ball of all places so that he would be forced to watch her float through the steps of the opening dance, her eyes on that damn Frenchman as if she belonged among Lady Leia’s entourage? He knocked back the rest of his drink and put the glass down unnecessarily heavily. A hairline fractured split it up the middle. Ren quickly moved to stand in front of the table so that nobody would notice it.

By the time Hux was able to escape from the clutches of Mr. Bradfield’s bevy of eligible maidens, three dances had taken place and Ren had been able to enjoy the privilege of knowing many people wished to approach the refreshments table but few dared. Miss Smith had made her way up and down the set with the overly energetic Frenchman, then with a too handsome redcoat who danced far too well for her and finally with a middle-aged tradesman. She seemed to be enjoying herself with all of them. Almost as if she had never attended an assembly before. She probably hadn’t.

“Enjoying yourself, Ren?” Hux had sidled up to him without him noticing.

“Not as much as you, I should think.”

“Go to hell. His Grace wanted us here, God knows why, so we are here. Nobody told me I’d have to  _ dance _ .”

“But you love dancing, Hux. Here, have some punch.” He thrust him a tiny glass which the Colonel took with a curl of his lip and immediately put back down.

“Anyway, I know why we are here,” continued Ren, his eyes once more drifting across the room. “The girl.”

“What girl?” he followed his companion’s eyes. “Oh,  _ that  _ girl. Why, you suspect Snoke of playing matchmaker?” He snorted softly. “Don’t get your hopes up, Ren.”

“What? No! Me - with a  _ Miss Smith _ ? Don’t be absurd, Hux. That’s not what I mean at all.”

“Then what?”

Ren could hardly admit to Colonel Hux that the bastard girl interested him. That he wanted to know why she was there and what his mother wanted from her. That he suspected Snoke knew that. He managed to know most things.

Finding that Hux was still waiting for an answer, he finally shrugged slightly. “She fainted in front of me. It would be strange if I did not feel some measure of interest in her.”

Hux rolled his eyes. “Don’t act like she swooned at your good looks. Your out-of-control charger almost ran her down in the woods and she hit her head against a tree.”

“She got in my way,” said Ren stiffly.

“Poor you. So what are you going to do about it? Stare at her all evening?”

Ren shot him an impatient look. “Of course not,” he retorted, as if he had not spent three dances doing just that. “I am going to get in her way.”

And without further ado he left the safety of the refreshments table and crossed the room.

Miss Smith had left the dance floor and been returned to two other young ladies in his mother’s party. His mother, he was pleased to see, had moved elsewhere, presumably to talk to the other matrons. He did not look for her.

He approached the group, forcing their animated conversation to cease, and stopped in front of Miss Smith. He bowed. She looked uncertain for a moment and then dropped a glancing, shallow curtsy. As little as she could manage without being actively uncivil.

“Lord Ren. To what do we owe the pleasure?”

A wave of anger rose up in him at her casual insolence. Her - a nobody! But he stamped down on it. It would not do to descend to her level.

“I hope you are quite recovered from your ordeal last week, Miss Smith.”

“You mean when your awful horse attacked me?”

“He didn’t attack-” Ren stopped himself. He was  _ not  _ going to get into an argument here, not with her friends watching the interaction with interest. He took a deep breath, centred himself by staring at a spot above Miss Smith’s head and then returned his gaze to her, meeting her clear, antagonistic eyes.

“I can only apologise for the events of last week and I should like to make it up to you. Will you do me the honour of dancing the next two with me, Miss Smith?”

Whatever she had thought he might say, it was clearly not this, though the two ladies with her showed a more demonstrative reaction, their eyes widening and then glancing at each other with some measure of glee. He wanted to knock their silly heads together. Miss Smith, on the other hand, looked as if he had asked the question in Japanese.

“You would like… to dance… with  _ me _ ?” she repeated.

He could not see the point in replying and merely raised his eyebrows.

“But,” said Miss Smith. And then, with a burst of inspiration, “I must consult my dance card!”

“Here,” murmured one of the ladies, producing a little rectangle of card and handing it to her. Miss Smith studied it and then her expression brightened. “I am sorry, Lord Ren, but I am already engaged for the next dance.”

She was not concealing the card very well. “Then the two after.” He could see the blank space.

A bullish expression crossed her face but he knew he had her. She could not refuse him, not if she wished to dance again that evening and he did not think she would be  _ that  _ petty, not at her first ball.

The forced smile she gave him was positively vulpine. “As your lordship wishes.” She dropped another shallow curtsy, a clear sign of dismissal.

Ren did not wait around, but he felt the eyes of three young women on him all the way across the room.

_ * _

_ When Rey woke up, her eyes hit an unfamiliar, beamed ceiling. She had a splitting headache and all her limbs felt heavy. A crackling sound and a woody smell suggested a fire somewhere close by. For a moment she simply allowed her her senses to return to her. Then she sat up quickly, realisation of the unfamiliarity of the situation hitting her along with memories. A blanket slid off her chest and she realised she was lying on a chaise longue by a fire in the drawing room of an old fashioned, very grand, Jacobean house. A wild panic gripped her and she clutched the blanket to herself as a kind of defence. She looked wildly round the room. _

_ At the window, a man was standing, looking out. He wore all black that matched his wavy, black hair and he had planted himself firmly, his hands clasped behind her back. Rey felt a hitch of fear in her heart, but she called out bravely enough, “Where am I? What am I doing here?” _

_ The man turned quickly and came towards her. He was younger than she had expected somehow, his features more delicate than his height and the broadness of his shoulders suggested. _

_ “You are my guest,” he said, sitting down on a chair opposite to her so that she did not have to strain to look up at him. “I am glad you are awake.”  _

_ Rey looked at him suspiciously. Something about his voice was familiar. “Your guest? How exactly did that happen? I was walking, I was in the woods -” _

_ “You trespassed on my land.” _

_ “So you  _ abducted _ me?” Rey leapt to her feet to put more distance between them, instantly regretting it as her head swam again. _

_ “No! You were knocked out. I had to bring you back here.” _

_ “I was knocked out because your evil horse attacked me! As I just said.” _

_ “You were trespassing, girl!” cried the man, also standing up and taking a frustrated step towards her. He towered over her and Rey took a step back, still clutching the blanket. “You startled Kyber, tripped, and hit your head. You wouldn’t wake up so I brought you back here. Show some gratitude!” _

_ Rey took a breath and glared up at him, piecing his words together with her own returning memories. The woods in the autumnal mist, climbing over a fence and not thinking anything of it because she had always gone wherever she wanted, wandering further than she had intended, the sudden sound of hooves, the massive black horse coming out of nowhere, stumbling backwards - and nothing. She probably had in fact trespassed. And if she had done, she now knew onto whose land she had stumbled. _

_ “You’re Lord Ren. Lady Leia’s son. She told me about you, that you lived here sometimes. Just out of her reach but not too far away.” _

_ He pulled back then. The anger replaced by surprise and suspicion of his own. “How do you know Lady Leia? What is she to you? Who are you?” _

_ “Miss Smith to you and I would like to leave now, Lord Ren.” _

_ His eyes flickered across her face but somehow he no longer seemed a threat. Just an unpleasant, entitled lord, no different from other men she had met, even if he was undeniably striking and his rank far more elevated than anyone else she had met before. _

_ He held out his hand to let her pass. “If you are sure you are completely recovered. I will have my carriage ordered for you.” _

_ Wait, while he ordered his servants to attend her and then sent her back to Lady Leia in a carriage and four with his monogrammed crest on the side? She cringed at the very thought. _

_ “Thank you, but I would rather walk.” _

_ “Unchaperoned?” _

_ Rey stopped, took a breath and tried to resist a desire to simply punch him. It did not matter that Lady Leia had taken her under her wing, she would always be the scavenger, the nobody from the orphanage, and nobodies did not care about things like being chaperoned. Not when they had learned how to fight with their fists and their elbows and their teeth and any weapon to hand as she had on the streets. _

_ She treated Lord Ren to a sickly smile. “Yes, my lord. Unchaperoned.” _

_ Then she dumped the armful of blankets in his unresisting arms, crossed the room, pulled open the front door and left without another word, leaving him standing there in the middle of his hall in front of the fire, unexpectedly bested. _

*

Rey had been looking forward to the ball all week. She had worked hard on her English country dancing with Captain Dameron, M. Finn and Miss Pava eager to make up a little set with her and help her improve. She doubted she would ever be a graceful dancer, but she could not help thrilling at the idea of actually attending an assembly like a real lady and dancing. Oh, how she had always longed to dance! And to wear such a pretty, cream dress! It might be an altered one of Miss Pava’s, but to Rey it was the most glorious and luxurious gown she had ever owned. She had been promised that the Starkiller Assembly Rooms rarely attracted anyone above local tradesmen and a few gentry families and so she had been content to attend with their party, secure in anticipation of enjoying herself without embarrassing herself and her new friends too much.

She had not expected  _ him  _ to be there. It was a blow, but she was determined not to let his presence interfere with her enjoyment of the evening. And for a while, it had worked. Her partners had been agreeable and she had started off dancing with both Finn and Captain Dameron to put her at ease. Miss Pava and her friend, Miss Tico, were amiable and supportive and if Lord Ren had not spoiled everything, she would have considered the evening a great success.

She had no wish to dance with Lord Ren, not just because she disliked him and she was certain he disliked her equally, but because he was of such a lofty status, she felt that her standing up with him would only open her up to gossip. He was the adopted heir of the Duke of Snoke and the grandson of the Earl of Alderaan, if he chose to remember it. On the other hand, she was - absolutely nobody. She could not even lay claim to her surname, and she was sure he would know all that by now. Starkiller was a small town; it would not be able to find out the details of Lady Leia’s newest project. She could not imagine why he wanted to dance with her except to humiliate her.

And yet, here he was, standing in front of her as the musicians warmed up for the fifth dance, and holding out his hand to her with a guarded expression on his face. Rey glanced momentarily back at Jessica, who shrugged slightly. 

Rey put her hand in his and silently allowed him to lead her onto the floor, aware of a lull in conversation and eyes turning to watch them. He led them right to the top of the set and then took a step down so that they would be the second couple, allowing Mr. Adams the attorney and his partner to go above them, which they did with some bewilderment at their promotion.

“[This is a complex dance](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I23LHKpGK4k&list=RDI23LHKpGK4k),” said Lord Ren across the set as quietly as he could, as they crossed hands for the first time. “Observe the top couple together so that when we reach the bottom of the set and we become the top couple you are familiar with their steps.”

They turned. Rey was obliged to wait, seething, until she could respond when they were once more at rest while the first couple executed a more complicated step.

“If I had wanted instruction, I would have asked my dancing master.”

“Your dancing master? My, Lady Leia has been generous towards you!”

“She is very benevolent towards those who show her the respect she deserves.”

It was a hit. He looked thunderous and she felt a surge of triumph that she expressed in a superior smile of reassurance towards M. Finn who was watching them anxiously from the side of the room.

“How is my dancing, Lord Ren?” she could not help goading him a minute later, as they turned into a line, with Mr. Adams and his partner. 

“Perfectly acceptable,” he bit out.

“Only acceptable?” she prodded, dropping Mr. Adams’ hand and crossing the set, passing close by Lord Ren before also letting go of his.

“Your inane chatter distracts your focus.”

Rey’s lips parted and she knew her cheeks were reddening. “My  _ inane chatter _ ? Then I will be silent. Silent and focussed.”

They did not speak for a long time after that. Rey concentrated on her dance steps and executing them not just well but perfectly. She concentrated on matching her partner in every turn, every rise and fall, and not just matching him but exceeding him. She was not an experienced dancer herself but she could tell that while he might be considered a good dancer, he carried himself so stiffly and flung himself round every turn as if he was required to pivot ninety degrees that it was almost as if he was attacking the dance. She could do better. She would be a more elegant, more civilised dancer than he was. Let society watch them - they would not judge  _ her  _ badly for this dance.

They reached the bottom of the set and were obliged to stand opposite each other for several minutes before they could resume the dance once more. Rey was no longer afraid, if she had ever been. She met his gaze openly, with far more boldness than any well brought-up girl should have done.

“Why are you here, Miss Smith?” asked Lord Ren suddenly, as if her forthright stare made him uncomfortable and he had to be speaking.

“At this assembly or in Starkiller?”

“Either. Both.”

“I am at this assembly because Lady Leia wished to bring me. I am in Starkiller because Lady-”

“Lady Leia wished you to accompany her. Yes, I know that story, Miss Smith. But you do realise that my mother’s patronage always comes with a price. If it is a way into good society that you are looking for, you should prepare for disappointment. Lady Leia may be an Organa by birth, but she lost all right to her title when she married a smuggler.”

“Admiral Solo has been nothing but kind to me,” retorted Rey.

Ren snorted just as their part in the dance resumed, this time leading the way as the trickier top couple. “ _ Admiral Solo.  _ His rank is a joke.”

“And yours isn’t,  _ Lord Ren _ ?”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“When was the last time you saw your father?” insisted Rey, passing close by him. “Or do you simply have him blackballed from all his clubs not to mention these assembly rooms without even daring to look him in the face?”

They were circling each other in the middle of the set and their eyes did not leave each other’s, so Rey could see the deep flush that spread up Lord Ren’s throat.

“Careful, brat. You are poking your nose where it has no place.”

The childish desire, brattish even, to snap back that he started it, was on the tip of her tongue, but she spun away from him instead into the next turn of the dance - and went the wrong way.

A pair of firm arms grabbed her and turned her and before she could even draw breath or work out how she had gone wrong, she found herself back where she should be, circling round a ginger haired dandy who looked as if she was something nasty stuck to his shoe. She barely noticed him, however, her eyes reaching out wildly for Lord Ren even as she could still feel the imprint of his grip on her bare arms. 

“You need a better dancing instructor, Miss Smith,” he murmured over his shoulder as they passed back to back.

Rey drew in a deep breath.

“And you were doing so well!”

She drew in another, willing herself to be the bigger person, not to respond to such needling and pointless mockery. They executed another turn before coming to face each other and realising that the dance had finally come to an end. Lord Ren bowed; she curtsied. All along the line, gentlemen were holding out their hands to lead their partners back to their chaperones or to the refreshment table.

Rey glowered at her partner. “Never talk to me again, Lord Ren.”

Across from her, his expression flickered into something almost like surprise. Then he shrugged slightly. “As you wish, Miss Smith.”

He turned on his heel and stalked off the dance floor leaving her alone. It was very poorly done. She pressed her lips together, feeling suddenly abandoned, before turning slowly round and walking back to her party.

On the other side of the room, Hux raised his tiny glass of punch. “Got what you needed, Ren? You seemed to be enjoying yourself. She’s not a bad dancer, the by-blow.”

Lord Ren snatched the punch out of Hux’s hand and drained it. 

“I wonder, do you think she is Lady Leia’s and that is why she is taking such an interest? Imagine - your  _ sister _ , Ren!”

He grabbed Hux by the arm with unnecessary violence. “We’re leaving.” He proceeded to nearly drag him out of the assembly rooms.

“I say, let me go, Ren, you great oaf!”

Outside, Hux shook him off and irritably rearranged his clothes. “There really is no need to react like that, you know. It was a joke.”

“In remarkably poor taste.” Ren spun round on him and towered over him, their faces close together. “And never,  _ ever  _ make such an insinuation about my mother ever again.”

Without waiting for another answer, he stalked off into the night, so rapidly that if Hux had wanted to follow him, which he did not much, he should have had to run to keep up.

**Author's Note:**

> Sooooo here we go, yet another Regency AU! I have to admit that I haven't yet read any Regency AUs for this fandom/ship, so any similarity in plot/style is a complete coincidence. I've got plot ideas for this, but also not entirely sure where it's going but I think it should be fun!
> 
> I can't promise regular updates due to stressful RL but I will update as frequently as I can. :)
> 
> Also, so you don't get your hopes up, I'm not a smut writer. The rating will not be changing. I can promise you banter, pining, gentle touches filled with meaning as you'd expect in any Regency romance, eye sex and even possibly a kiss or two, but this is not the smut fic you are looking for. Sorry!
> 
> Hope you enjoyed it and find me on [tumblr](http://misscrawfords.tumblr.com/)!


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